Cystic Fibrosis test

[kermit]

I see people saying they've had this test - what is it? Blood test? When is it performed? I have an appointment Tuesday so I'll ask about it then but my doctor has never mentioned it so I didn't know if it was part of the routine stuff they did a month or so ago or if it's a special test. I don't know of anyone in either of our families that have it so I'm sure we're low risk but I'd still like to do it if it's easy.

[pinotgrig]

It's a blood test. Has to be done by 13-ish weeks, iirc.

[rugbywife]

I had it done before we got pregnant, to see if either of us were carriers. Neither of us were.

[lolo]

It's a blood test of you and, if you test positive as a carrier, of your husband (you must both be carriers to pass it down).

[JayhawkGirl]

It is a blood test. My insurance covered it but that can certainly vary.

Both of my kids have had false positives for cf at their newborn screening. I did the testing on me this time, thankfully. We know I'm not a carrier so DD's positive isn't sending me spinning while we wait for the retest results. The three weeks waiting for retest results on DS were very worry filled days.

[rbp]

I had a blood draw at my first appointment to determine whether I was a carrier for CF, fragile X, and spinal muscular atrophy. If I had been a carrier for any of those, then H's blood would have been drawn to determine whether he was a carrier.

I feel like it's a little weird to wait until you're pg for the doctor to mention this test. I saw my OB in June and told him I was off BC and TTC, and asked what tests I should do. He checked my chickenpox and rubella titers but didn't say a word about the carrier tests. If H and I had a 1/4 chance of having a kid with CF, I'd have really liked to know before getting pg. Luckily all the carrier tests were negative, so it's a moot point.

[speyedr]

Jan 12, 2014 12:33:12 GMT -5 pinotgrig said:

It's a blood test. Has to be done by 13-ish weeks, iirc.

It can be done later than this, I had it done well into my 2nd tri. MIL and SIL are carriers and DH has never been tested so my OB had me get tested. I am not a carrier so it doesn't matter whether DH is or not, worst case scenerio is we have a child who is a carrier and this is assuming DH is a carrier as well. 

[kershnic]

I don't think there's any limit to when you can do it. It's just testing whether you're a carrier of CF - which gives you a chance of passing carrier status to your child, or if your H is also a carrier, a chance of your child having CF. Certain diseases are more common in certain ethnic backgrounds, and CF happens to be more common in white people with European backgrounds.

[mellimel19]

I had my blood drawn for this at around 10 weeks. Turns out I am a carrier, so DH had to have his blood drawn at my next appointment. Thankfully he is not also a carrier.